Which Melbourne practices are in scope
Compliance accounting and ordinary tax-return practices are typically outside scope. Practices that move into business-services territory (incorporations, trust setups, controlled-monies arrangements, family-office work) are usually inside scope. The boundary is service-defined, not size-defined.
If your practice provides any designated service to any client, the whole practice enrols. You cannot ring-fence the designated-service line. The AUSTRAC obligations apply to the practice as a reporting entity, not to the individual service line within the practice.
Common Melbourne-specific patterns
Melbourne has a deep concentration of business-services accountants in the inner suburbs (Hawthorn, Camberwell, Kew, South Yarra) and a separate concentration of family-office and structuring practices in the CBD. Both clusters are heavy in designated-service activity.
AUSTRAC has published guidance flagging trust-and-company-service abuse as a national typology, with Melbourne featuring in several published case studies of layered company structures used to obscure ultimate beneficial ownership. If your practice does any structuring work, expect heightened scrutiny on the beneficial-ownership chain.
Implementation for a Melbourne firm
A small Melbourne practice typically spends 4 to 8 hours over the 14-day Caltury trial to stand up the AML/CTF workflow. That covers enrolment preparation, Program generation, customer-form configuration, CSV import of an existing client book, sanctions screening of the imported clients, and a practice-run of a company-formation file end to end.
From go-live, the marginal operator workload is roughly 10 to 20 minutes per new structuring client (capturing beneficial owners and running screens) plus 15 to 30 minutes when an AUSTRAC report needs to be lodged. There is no overhead per ordinary tax-return client because tax-return work is not a designated service.
- AUSTRAC enrolment generated in the required format
- AML/CTF Program tailored to an AU accounting practice
- Customer onboarding flow with beneficial-owner branching
- Sanctions / PEP screening included on every tier
- AUSTRAC report drafting (SMR / TTR / IFTI) in the correct schema
Common questions
We provide nominee director services for a handful of offshore-controlled clients. Are we in scope?
Yes. Acting as a nominee director is a designated service regardless of the size of the cohort or the source of the underlying control. The practice enrols, has a Program, and runs CDD and screening on the beneficial owners behind each nominee arrangement.
Does Caltury work for a Melbourne practice that also does some legal work?
Caltury covers the accounting designated services. If the practice operates a separate law firm under a solicitor's practising certificate, that legal practice is a separate reporting entity with its own enrolment and Program. Both can be served by Caltury in parallel under separate accounts.
How does Caltury handle joint clients across our two offices?
Customer records are unified at the organisation level, so a client created in Melbourne is visible to authorised users in your second office. Sanctions screening runs once per customer, not once per office. The audit log records which user took which action.
Can I export everything if we ever change provider?
Yes. Customer records, AML/CTF reports, sanctions screening history, Program versions and the full audit log are all exportable to CSV or PDF at any time. There is no lock-in. Caltury does not hold data hostage.
This page is general information about Australian AML/CTF obligations. It is not legal advice. AUSTRAC has not reviewed this content. For situations specific to your practice consult an Australian-qualified lawyer or AML/CTF adviser.